The India Meteorological Department on Tuesday issued an alert for “moderate to heavy” rains in the national capital over the next three days. “Delhi-NCR is very likely to experience one or two spells of moderate rain from Wednesday evening/night to Friday afternoon, with heavy rainfall at isolated places on Thursday,” it said.
The rain is likely to inundate low-lying areas and disrupt traffic on roads, it warned. Kuldeep Srivastava, the head of the regional forecasting centre of the IMD, said the monsoon trough will remain close to Delhi-NCR from Tuesday evening to Friday.
Under its influence, convergence of lower-level easterly winds from the Bay of Bengal and south westerly winds from the Arabian Sea will take place over northwest India, he said. On Tuesday, cloudy weather kept the mercury below the 34 degrees mark in Delhi. However, humidity levels shot up to 92 per cent.
Delhi has recorded 213.3 mm rainfall against the normal of 210.6 mm in August so far. Overall, it has gauged 531.9 mm precipitation against the normal of 486.7 mm since June 1, when monsoon season starts.
The Yamuna was flowing precariously close to the warning mark on Tuesday and water levels in the river is likely to increase as the weather department warned of “heavy to very heavy” rainfall in northwest India. “The water level was recorded at 204 metres at 10 am and at 203.98 metres at 6 pm, below the warning level of 204.50 metres,” an official of the Irrigation and Flood Control department said. The river had swelled to 204.38 metres on Monday, which was just a metre below the danger mark of 205.33 metres.
Kuldeep Srivastava, the head of the regional forecasting centre of the India Meteorological Department, said heavy to very rainfall is likely in northwest India over the next three four days due to the northward shifting of the monsoon trough. Water was being released into the Yamuna at the rate of 33,406 cubic metres per second (cusec) at 6 pm from the Hathnikund barrage in Haryana’s Yamunanagar district. One cusec is equivalent to 28.317 litre per second.
The flow rate was 7,418 cusec at 10 am, the official said. Normally, the flow rate at the Hathnikund barrage is 352 cusec, but the discharge is increased after heavy rainfall in catchment areas.
Delhi’s Water Minister Satyendar Jain had Monday said the government was ready to deal with any flood-like situation. “We have a flood-control system ready and it will be activated when any situation demands it,” he said.
The government has a plan ready for all the areas along the Yamuna, right from Palla village to Okhla, he said. The water level of the river rose due to heavy rainfall in its catchment area over the last few days.
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